Meerkat Manor: Rose' story
by Harvest-M00n
Summary: Rose is the new leader of the Paws, but everyone wants her job and they'll stop at nothing to prise it from her. How can she live her life having to look over her shoulder at every turn?
1. Chapter 1

Hi, please review and tell me what you think…I really hope you like it!!!

Chapter 1

Rose was the first one up this morning, and the pale rays of the sun were starting to warm her up. She wasn't happy, even though she was currently the dominant female of her group of meerkats, the Paws. Her mother Honey had passed away a few days ago because of her illness and Rose had assumed dominance of her group, but she knew it couldn't last forever. She was strong and pretty but everyone- all the females- in the group were waiting for her to fail, so they could snap up her position, and she knew it.

Her sister Thorn was her main concern. Thorn and her little group of followers were watching her every move. Rose and her weren't litter sisters and she knew for a fact if they were, tensions between the two of them would be even higher.

As the sun rose ever higher in the desert sky, a few other meerkats started to climb out of the burrow. Rose' rather nervous friend Katie was scrambling out of the burrow, her brown eyes wide with anxiety, and Rose walked over to her.

"Hi, Katie," she said sweetly. Katie jumped.

"W-what? Oh, er, hi Rose," she stammered. "I'm sorry, I-I just…oh, I had a bad dream."

"You did? What was it?" All meerkats knew to take warnings and signs from their dreams seriously. Sometimes they were omens of what was to come. Katie had always been very in tune with the messages of the Gods and could read Sky-diamonds aswell. Ever since Sorority died, their last Night Reader, everyone had been waiting for Katie to take up the role, but she didn't seem to want to.

"Oh, nothing important," said Katie airily. She bent her head closer. "Nothing changing with you and Thorn, Rose, at least."

Rose smiled. "Good. I don't know if I'm cut out for this but I don't want Thorn to get it."

Katie smiled wanly back. "I don't think anyone does, do they? She's still asleep. Maybe we should leave her and the others babysitting today."

Rose laughed. Thorn hated children and had always avoided responsibility of looking after them. Even if they were hers she knew that she'd make everyone else look after them.

Another meerkat bounded up to them- Rose' best friend, Zeni, who was always carefree and happy, no matter what happened.

"Hi Rose, hi Katie!" she said breathlessly. "Are we going out hunting yet? I'm starving, really I am!"

"Yeah, everyone is," came an unwanted gravely voice from the burrow entrance. A darker coloured meerkat stood there glaring at them- Thorn, of course. "Can we go soon?" Without waiting for an answer she started nodding in the direction of the dunes and her group instantly began to head in that direction. Rose tingled with anger. It wasn't her sisters decision to make, was it?

"Yes, we'll go soon, but not everyone's up yet, Thorn. And we need to sort out who wants to babysit Honey's pups today."

Thorn rolled her eyes. "Fine, just choose someone, and be quick. I don't want to have to wait all day."

Katie rolled her eyes and Zeni scowled. "Oh my… Thorn, you're not going to die of starvation, you know. You can wait. Honestly!"

Zeni shook her head as Thorn's eyes flashed, but she turned her head in disgust, not bothering to start a fight with her litter mate.

Katie grimaced. "I'll babysit, Rose. I'm not that hungry today."

Rose blinked. "Are you sure? You babysat the other day, too."

"Really, I don't mind. Just pick a few other people to stay with me, will you?"

Rose didn't have to pick- a small gaggle of teenagers were bounding over. "Oh, we'll help you, Katie! Won't we, Gareth?"

Her friend mumbled something and the girls behind him giggled. Maree, the girl who had first spoken, glared. "Look, Rose, we will, and Gareth will too. Are you guys staying?"

Another three nodded, the others looked shifty. But Rose was happy with that. "That's great! Thanks, guys, that's a big help. We'll save you some food…you should take it in turns to come and grab some."

Maree and her friends instantly dived down into the burrow to find the pups, whilst Katie smiled at Rose. "Great. It'll be me babysitting all of them now, not just the kids."

Rose sighed. "I'm sorry, Katie. We're going to have to go now, we're already running late."

Katie waved her off and Rose squeaked and headed off in the direction opposite to where Thorn had wanted to go, over to the Tree place, where lots of bushes and trees grew.

As she ran, she noticed her friend Micaya close behind her. He looked tired.

"Did you not sleep well last night or something?" she asked him, slowing down a little. He shook his head.

"No, but I don't know why. Maybe I'm worrying about something?"

"About what?"

Micaya swallowed. "I don't know. But Katie kept making noises in her sleep."

"She told me, she was dreaming."

Rose had to break off as she noticed Thorn taking over the group. "Thorn! Go back!"

Thorn hissed but did as she was told. Micaya smiled. "Troubles, Rose?"

She sighed. "With her, yes. You know she wants to be leader of the group. She thought she was going to be after Honey died. But now I took over and…I can't do my job properly because I feel like she's watching me all the time."

"Chase her out, then," he said, lowering his voice.

"I've thought about that, but I'd need a real excuse. And I don't know who'd win in a fight. What if she did? I'd be chased out!"

"You should think about it. There is one way to make sure you keep dominance over the group…"

They'd reached the Tree place already and they slid down the hill into the bushes, the group splitting up for a good days hunt. Rose and Micaya strayed over to a bush to eat together, whilst Zeni and a few others chatted by the rocks at few tails' lengths away.

"You should think about settling down, having pups, you know," said Micaya, trying to sound casual. Rose looked away. Everyone knew that he had always had a crush on her and he wanted to be her mate, but she didn't love him back. He was a great friend but she just didn't fancy him and she didn't think she ever would, though she didn't want to tell him because she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Well, when I meet the right meerkat, I will," she said fairly, sniffing for some food. "But only then. I'm not falling in love with any loners. I want someone I can rely on!"

"But in this group, there's only a few people not related to you that you can be with," Micaya pointed out. His eyes seemed to add, _And I'm one of them._

"Look, Mick…" she said, using his pet name. "Let's just eat for now, okay? I'll know when I meet the right one."

Sighing, he started to dig for a scorpion. She blinked slowly. She didn't want to hurt him, but what choice did she have? Rose wanted to fall in love and have pups- it was one of the best ways to secure dominance- but she didn't know when, or how to make it happen.

Luckily for her, love was just around the corner.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi this is chapter 2 of the story and it's not as boring now, I promise… I hope you enjoy it and please review, even if it's only to tell me I'm rubbish!!!

Chapter 2

It was getting to the hottest part of the day now and most of the meerkats were just lazing around, not bothering to catch anything until the weather cooled down again. It was only mid spring but already Rose could feel the temperatures rising every day.

Thorn was speaking to her followers loudly about something she'd done and they were all cooing at her admiringly. Rose rolled her eyes. Maybe Micaya was right… what? No! She'd never chase her own sister out of the group, even if she did get on her nerves all the time.

She rested under the biggest tree in the cool shade. She'd just eaten a big juicy millipede and she felt fuller now. Rose thought about what her friend had said. A mate? She wasn't that old, in fact she was hardly past being a teenager, though she was very mature for her age. More mature than most of the others. If she hadn't been, she doubted she would have got the job in the first place.

Zeni came and lay down next to her. "Hi, are you alright? You look worried."

"Do I? No, no, I just…Zeni, do you think I need a mate? Micaya said that…"

Zeni was raising her eyebrows at her. "Micaya fancies you, it's totally obvious. That's why he said that. If you ran off with some loner he'd be telling you that you don't need to get pregnant because you're strong enough as it is. Just ignore him."

Rose smiled. "Alright. I know, I just think my positions so fragile right now what with Thorn and her friends…even Nikko was looking at me funny before. Did I do something to him?"

Zeni looked uncomfortable. "Well, there's all kinds of rumours going around that him and Thorn are an item. But I don't think any of them are true," she added quickly, seeing fear in Rose' eyes. Nikko was known for being devious and sometimes plain mean- he was Honey's sister Sugar's son, Rose and Thorn's cousin. If Thorn wanted Rose out of the way and she had Nikko on her side…what was she thinking? Thorn wasn't that nasty- she was just ambitious and greedy.

Mango and Chutney, two of the younger members of the group, came to sit nearby. "Hi, Rose," Mango squeaked. "Hi, Zeni. Can we sit with you?"

"Yeah, do," sighed Zeni, budging up. "Where are your other friends?"

"Still playing," Mango answered the question. Chutney was terribly shy and kept quiet all the time.

"Why aren't you with them? I thought you were all best friends?" _And also litter mates_, thought Rose.

"We are, but then Mercedes started being mean to Chutney, so we came to find you instead," said Mango. He looked sad. Chutney snuffled, her eyes shiny.

"That's not nice!" said Rose angrily. "Mercedes? Where is she? I'll tell her off. It's alright Chutney, you don't need to-"

Suddenly there was a high pitched squeak from several of the sentries on duty- something was wrong. As the other meerkats stood up and strained their necks to see what was going on, the other sentries began to join in.

"What's going on?" gasped Zeni. Rose craned her neck.

"Oh no!" she yelped. "The Chianti are attacking!"

Their rival group- the Chianti, strangely enough- were war dancing towards them, hissing and spitting in anger.

"What are they doing?" said Rose loudly. "We haven't done anything to them!"

"Quick!" hissed Thorn from beside her. "We have to attack back. Rose!"

"Alright, alright!" Rose started diving forwards, her tail in the air, squeaking for her group to follow her. She would have to fight for her foraging grounds, and what if they lost? Would she lose the support of the meerkats she had?

It was only about a minute before the Paws and the Chianti met in the middle of the grounds and lunged into battle. Rose set her sights on the dominant female of them, who looked pregnant, but only from the slight bulge in her stomach.

"Yzma!" she growled, anger ruffling her fur. "What do you think you're doing? These are our grounds! You won't have them!"

Yzma snarled back. "Our Night Watcher, Punk, saw in the Sky-diamonds that Honey was dead- and now you've taken over the group! You're weak, Rose, and we'll win these grounds before you even turn round."

Rose lunged forwards, sinking her teeth into Yzma's front let. Yzma reared up, hissing, and clobbered Rose round the back of her head, scraping her claws down. Rose shrieked in pain and pushed Yzma off her, then tried to dive on top of her, but Yzma rolled over and it was Rose pinned down. Yzma bit down furiously but Rose just about managed to kick upwards with her back feet and knock her off before she could get a grasp. Blood was running down her back and she growled at the pain, but the adrenaline was pumping through her and all she cared about was finishing Yzma off.

Thorn pounced on the Chianti's leader first, dragging her by her ear into the bush nearby, and they began to fight. Rose turned to see other groups of meerkats fighting just as viciously as she had been doing. Some of the Chianti were sent running back to the edge of the fight- but some of the Paws were resorting to the same thing. The fight looked even now, but how would it end?

Suddenly someone else barrelled into Rose, sending her flying. She landed and rolled and whoever it was sank his teeth into the back of her neck. She bucked and struggled her way free, then pounced on him and clawed into his belly and chest, drawing blood. He spat with rage, trying to bite her, but to no avail. She pushed him down and snarled at him, and then caught sight of his face.

She paused for a split second, panting, ignoring the wails and yells of the other meerkats around her. Then, after what seemed a lifetime, she heard a screech above all the others: "Retreat, Chianti! Quickly!"

The other meerkats began to tear themselves free and soared off away from battle, scratched and bleeding. The Paws chased after them, snapping at their heels to remind them not to do this ever again. The meerkat underneath Rose wriggled free and she jumped off him, watching him disappear into the distance. Halfway there he turned and glared at her, chest heaving, but then he ran off to join his embarrassed group.

"We won, Rose, we won!" squealed Zeni, bounding over. Her ear was bleeding and she had a nasty cut on her shoulder but she didn't seem to notice. "They won't be coming back for a while, will they? Stupids!" she yelled at the last few members disappearing over the horizon.

"Y-yeah," said Rose, taking a deep breath. "We won, Zeni. Isn't it great?"

Micaya trotted over. He'd been lucky- he only had one cut on his side- but he still looked tired and worn out.

The group dropped to rest under the tree. Mango, Chutney, Cherry and Ice were huddled together, acting out parts of the fight. Chutney wasn't joining in much, only nodding whenever Mango chatted to her about the best moves.

"Did you notice Yzma's pregnant?" Rose asked Micaya and Zeni. They looked at each other.

"No. That's good. You should have used that against her next time," advised Micaya. "You know, threaten her."

Rose nodded. "Yeah…but something inside me…I couldn't even threaten to kill her pups or something. I'd feel so mean."

"She'd do it to you," he pointed out. "You should watch out for her. I don't trust her."

"Does anyone trust her?" said Zeni, rolling her eyes at him. "Listen, you should have seen me fight, I just grabbed onto this girl and then…"

Rose let them talk about the battle whilst she daydreamed. She was in big trouble. Only a few minutes ago she'd been talking with Zeni about settling down with a mate, and she'd been convinced it'd be with someone in the group that she wasn't related to. It angered the Sky-diamonds if you fell in love with someone you were closely related to- cousins were just about ok, if you were lucky- or someone who'd was already in love with someone else, or someone from another group.

Rose couldn't get that meerkats face out of her mind! He was so handsome and strong and…she was in love with him!

She groaned silently. Why did this have to happen to _her? _


End file.
